Discussion Forum > My latest AF reboot (lasted over 6 weeks and counting)
Penny:
This is a good illustration of the fact that dumping tasks into your AF list doesn't work, particularly for a beginner. It's much better, as I keep on advising, to let your list grow by starting with a few obvious tasks, like "Email", "Tidy Desk", etc, and then adding further things to the end of the list as you think of them or as they come up.
This works very well because if you haven't thought of something after a week or two and no one else has raised it either, it's likely to be pretty dead anyway.
This is a good illustration of the fact that dumping tasks into your AF list doesn't work, particularly for a beginner. It's much better, as I keep on advising, to let your list grow by starting with a few obvious tasks, like "Email", "Tidy Desk", etc, and then adding further things to the end of the list as you think of them or as they come up.
This works very well because if you haven't thought of something after a week or two and no one else has raised it either, it's likely to be pretty dead anyway.
May 5, 2009 at 15:13 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
Hi Mark,
That was partly why I posted!
Letting the list grow like this is almost the opposite of every other time management system, most of which seem to start by telling you to write a list of everything you need to do first.
The system is still working well for me - thank you for publishing it.
Penny
That was partly why I posted!
Letting the list grow like this is almost the opposite of every other time management system, most of which seem to start by telling you to write a list of everything you need to do first.
The system is still working well for me - thank you for publishing it.
Penny
May 5, 2009 at 21:36 |
Penny
Penny
First time round, I started with my old GTD Next Actions list. Didn't work.
Then I wrote out a long(ish) list of all the things I could think of which ought to be done. I started with about 150 items, and followed the normal instructions. Lasted about a month, and it was reasonably effective, but it resulted in a number of high resistance items near the start.
So I restarted again. With a blank sheet of paper, and a separate list of things to do that day. I worked mainly from the day's to-do list. However whenever I did something that was unfinished, I added the item to the AF list. So at the end of the day, the only things on the AF list were the things I had taken action on. The second day was similar: everything on the AF list was something I had actively worked on.
New items I hadn't actioned were added to the end of the old AF list - as it was a handy place to add them: any project-type list would have done.
After a few days, I started to add items as they came up to the AF list, ones I had not yet taken any action on
I should point out that the list did have backlog items, but only ones where I had taken some small action. I am fairly certain that this is why the list was working: there was some small momentum to everything on the list, even if it was only creeping along.
The other relevant factor is that I did have a backlog list, my old AF list: I think having someone where these things was captured is very important.
One thing that is missing is a "someday/maybe" type list, for putting all projects I am deliberately not working on yet.